Ed McBain - Hail to the Chief

The detectives were trying to find out exactly who 'Midge' was. They had gone through Broughan's gang files quite thoroughly, and had found no such nickname for any girl-auxiliary member. The scrutiny had not been a simple one; there were records of 153 gangs in West Riverhead alone. The Scarlet Avengers and the Death's Heads had been involved in hostile combat with many of those gangs since their respective formations three and four years back. Picking out the gang that had decided to do in the leaders of the Avengers and the Heads was rather like picking a dish at a Chinese banquet: everything looked good. So far, the detectives had only two leads. They knew that Andrew Kingsley had been with Eduardo and Constantina Portoles for some time before a person or persons unknown had entered the apartment and killed all three of them. They did not know why Kingsley had been there, or what his relationship with Portoles and his sister had been. They also knew that a girl named Midge, presumably an auxiliary member of the rampaging gang, had supplied them with information, and then had turned up in the next state, two days later, with her throat slit But who the hell was Midge?

'Notice any unusual traffic in the woods down there last night?' Carella asked Sack.

'No, sir,' Sack said, visibly trembling.

'Any headlights or anything?'

'What would red lights be doing down there in—'

'Headlights. Head lights. Automobile headlights.'

'Oh, headlights,' Sack said. 'No, didn't see no headlights down there.' He tried to light his pipe, and the match fell from his shaking hand. He took another wooden match from the box of kitchen matches, and broke the match striking it. He looked up at the detectives, smiled weakly, and put the pipe aside.

'What are you scared of Mr. Sack?' Kling asked.

'Me? Nothing. What've I got to be scared of?'

'Did you see something down in those woods last night?'

'No, sir, I did not.'

'Where were you last night, Mr. Sack?' Carella said, and realized that both he and Kling were shouting at the old man. Carella's wife was a deaf-mute, and he never thought of her inability to hear or speak as an affliction. But Sack's partial deafness was inordinately irritating. Carella suddenly realized that most people were annoyed by the partially deaf, whereas their patience was normally quite generous toward the partially blind, or the crippled. He put the thought aside, certain he would discuss it later with Teddy, her eyes watching his lips intently, her fingers answering in the deaf-mute language they shared, and which he 'spoke' fluently and with a distinctive accent all his own. Sack was staring up at him. He was not sure the old man had heard him. 'Mr. Sack, where were you…?'

'I heard you, I heard you," Sack said impatiently, and Carella now saw the other side of the coin, the annoyance of the hard-of-hearing at being subjected to shouting and repetition and constant doubt as to whether they heard what was being said to them.

'Well, where were you?'

'Here.'

'All night?'

'All night, yes.'

'What were you doing between ten o'clock and midnight?'

'Sleeping.'

'What time did you go to bed?'

'Nine o'clock. I go to bed nine o'clock every night.'

'Hear anything unusual down there in the woods?' Kling asked.

'I'm hard of hearing,' Sack said with great dignity. 'I wouldn't have heard a cannon if it went off on the porch.'

'Did you get out of bed any time during the night?'

'Well, yes, I suppose so.'

'When?'

'Don't remember exactly when. Had to go to the toilet, so I got out of bed.'

'Where's the toilet?' Carella asked.

'Back of the house.'

'Overlooking the woods?'

'Yes.'

'Is there a window in the toilet?'

'Yes.'

'Did you look out that window while you were in there?'

'Don't recall as I did.'

' Try to recall,' Kling said.

'I suppose I might've glanced out there.'

'What'd you see?'

'The woods.'

'Anything in the woods?'

'Trees, bushes.' Sack shrugged.

'Anything else?'

'Animals maybe. Lots of deer come close to the house, foraging.'

' Did you see any animals last night?'

'Well, yes, I suppose so.'

'What kind of animals?'

'Well, hard to say. Pretty dark out there except for the…' Sack stopped in midsentence.

'Except for the what ?' Carella said.

'Porch light,' Sack said. 'Always keep the porch light on.'

'By the porch, do you mean that porch on the front of the house?'

'Yes, that's the porch.'

'Is there a back porch, Mr. Sack?'

'No, just that front porch there.'

'But you said the toilet is at the back of the house.'

'Well, yes. Yes, that's where it is.'

'Then what's the light on the front porch got to do with what you saw or didn't see from the back ?'

Sack blinked, and then suddenly began crying. 'I'm an old man,' he said, and fumbled for a handkerchief in the pocket of his coveralls. 'I can't hear worth a shit, and I'm living on my disability pension and what I get from the welfare. I got maybe five, six years left of living, if that much. I don't want trouble. Please leave me alone. Please.' He blew his nose and dabbed at his eyes, and then put the handkerchief away, even though tears were still running down his cheeks. 'Please,' he said.

'Want to tell us what happened last night, Mr. Sack?' Carella said gently.

'Nothing,' Sack said. 'I already told you…' He could not go on. A sob strangled the sentence, and he began coughing, and again reached for his handkerchief.

' Did you see headlights down there in the woods, Mr. Sack?'

Sack did not answer.

'Yes or no?'

'I saw headlights,' he said, and sighed heavily. 'I'm an old man, Please, I don't want trouble.'

'What time was this, Mr. Sack? The headlights.'

'Must've been about two in the morning.'

'You saw them from the bathroom window?'

'Yes.'

'What'd you do?'

'I should've gone back to bed, but I thought… I thought somebody maybe got off the road by accident… and was stuck in the mud down there by the bottom, so I… I put on a pair of pants and a shirt, and my sweater and my lumberjack, and I went down there to see if… if I could offer some assistance. Phone a garage or… I'm an old man, and I'm deaf, but I ain't worthless, I have some value, you see. I thought I could phone, if the people down there needed help.'

'Go on,' Kling said. He said the two words quite softly, and was not at all sure that Sack heard them.

'I wasn't carrying no light, I looked for the damn flashlight, but I couldn't find it. I keep losing things around here, I don't know what it is. But there was a pretty good moon, and I know those woods like the back of my hand, I was born and raised in this house, I know every inch of them woods. And I made my way down to where the lights were, and… and then I saw what was going on.'

'What was that, Mr. Sack?'

'I said I saw what was going on.'

'Yes, and what did you see?'

There was a girl laying on the ground in front of the truck. There was blood all over her dress. There was two young boys standing in the headlights near her. They were having an argument.'

'What about?'

'One of them wanted to bury her. He said they'd brought along the shovels so they could bury her. The other one said he wanted to get out of there fast, it was good enough what they'd already done, covered her with leaves.'

'What'd they look like?'

'They were just kids, couldn't've been older than sixteen or seventeen.'

'White or black?'

'White.'

'Did they use names in addressing each other? Did you hear any names?'

'I'm hard of hearing,' Sack said again, 'but I think I heard one of them calling the other one "Pig." '